


Heartache and Heartbreak

by rosa241



Series: Hurt Johnny! [1]
Category: Fantastic Four (Movieverse)
Genre: Break Up, F/M, Hurt Johnny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 23:57:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosa241/pseuds/rosa241
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bumping into an ex-girlfriend turns Johnny's world upside down and rips his heart right out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartache and Heartbreak

**Author's Note:**

> This is part one in my hurt Johnny series. Not sure how many parts there will be to this but keep your eyes peeled as there will be more eventually.

“Seriously how much stuff does Sue need for one meal?” Frankie laughs lightly before placing the list back in her pocket.

“It’s thanksgiving which means that we need to eat a ridiculous amount of food and have an awesome time. Besides Sue’s the one cooking all of this, be thankful that she only wanted you to do the shopping.” As we begin the trek back to the apartment I can’t help but marvel slightly at the sight of the woman before me. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been dating for almost a year now, I’m not ashamed to say that it’s the longest relationship that I’ve ever had. Shocking right? My thoughts are interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Johnny! Oh my god it’s been so long.” Before I can even blink I find a very much female body. It takes a few minutes before the owner of the voice registers in my head.

“Cindy?” She pulls back slightly and flashes me a huge smile. “Uh...hi.”

“Hi? We haven’t seen each other for two years and all you can say is hi? Come on don’t I get a kiss?” She leans in slightly and I barely have time to shift before she tries to kiss me. “Something wrong?”

“Yeah, um...Cindy this is my girlfriend Frankie.” I gesture to my left where an obviously furious Frankie is glaring our way. “Frankie this is my...uh...my...an old friend.”

“An old girlfriend?” She questions her voice flat and seemingly calm, but don’t be fooled she’s mad. In fact scratch that she’s more than mad she’s furious! “Captain Frankie Raye, I’m in the army.” If she didn’t look so damn pissed off then I’d be laughing at the way that she politely informs Cindy that she could kick her ass in a second. Unfortunately Cindy wasn’t blessed with much in the way of brains, hey it sounds harsh but it’s totally true.

“Oh, you know I’ve never thought that you’d go for a plain Jane but I guess I was wrong. Slumming it a little aren’t you?” And there we go, that’s exactly the reason I broke up with her. Now this might be kind of surprising but Cindy is a complete and total bitch.

“Excuse me?” Frankie drops the bags she was holding, a resounding crack tells me that whatever jars she was holding are now broken. Wonderful. “And what bimbo school did you graduate from?”

“Bimbo? Well why don’t you tell me how much you make a year and we’ll compare notes.” Cindy spits, her claws instantly coming out. “Trust me it won’t take long before Johnny gets bored and goes running to someone who’s a little more within his league.”

“Hey hold on-”I don’t get any further before Frankie has stepped right up to Cindy, oh boy...

“Listen sweetie I could kick your ass in a thousand different ways before you could even get those precious little heels off of your feet. So unless you want me to rip out those pathetic little extensions from your head then I suggest that you back off!” Frankie practically growls this last part but Cindy was never one to back down easily.

“Oh please, I wouldn’t dirty my nails honey. With what I make I could hire someone to kick your ass.” Before either woman can move again I force myself in between the two of them.

“Okay ladies let’s cool things down a little here. Cindy listen I broke up with you for a very good reason, you’re a bitch! You always treat people like they’re not important just because they’re not a model or because they don’t look like you. Well guess what there are millions of women out there who don’t look like you but I would date any one of them over you in a heartbeat.” She looks shocked at my words and steps forward momentarily. “No, no way. Just walk away right now. I’m with Frankie now and I happen to care about her very much, and if anyone’s out of their league here then it’s me. She’s a better person than you’ll ever be so just go.”

Cindy huffs to herself, momentarily contemplating the idea of staying but eventually the small amount of common sense that she has breaks through. As she walks off I sigh in relief before turning to face Frankie. I’m met with a face like thunder.

“You dated her?” The words come out of her mouth with such venom that my own mouth is stunned into silence for a moment.

“Yeah, for like a few months but...” She cuts me off, her face still set in that thunderous expression.

“So that’s the class of woman you used to date? God.” She grabs the bags off the floor and speedily heads off in the other direction. My brain takes a moment before forcing my shocked body into movement.

“Hey, woah woah woah!” I manage to catch up with her after several minutes. “What the hell? Cindy’s a bitch, don’t let what she said bother you.” Judging by the way that she spins round, fury radiating off of every part of her body, it was the wrong thing to say.

“It’s not what she said that bothers me Johnny. The thing that bothers me is that you dated someone like that.” I can’t help sighing as she rants at me; this is a conversation that we’ve had numerous times recently. I thought that she understood. “The fact that you could be with someone like that, ugh! It just gets to me.”

“Frankie we’ve been through this before. I’ve dated a lot of people, although personally I wouldn’t call what I did with any of them dating. All those women...they were friends with benefits, hell I wouldn’t even call them friends. Look I was an ass before I met you. I didn’t treat women very well but you changed all that. You made me take a long hard look at myself and...I’m different now.” Her face still resembles thunder – a look which clearly means that I’m in serious trouble.

“You’re sleeping with her aren’t you?” What!?!

“What are you talking about? Of course I’m not! Frankie I haven’t even seen Cindy since I broke up with her.” What the hell is she thinking?

“Well you two seemed pretty friendly back there.” I want nothing more than for her to say that she’s joking right now but that look in her eyes...she seriously believes this. “So how long has this been going on? Hmm? How long have you been jumping into bed with her for? Weeks? Months? Hell did you two ever stop sleeping together?”

“Frankie where the hell is this coming from!?! How can you think that I’d do that to you?” She snorts at this and turns to walk away from me. “No you can’t do that. You can’t just accuse me of sleeping with her, get all angry and then walk away. Frankie I wouldn’t cheat on you, I couldn’t do that.”

“So you’ve never cheated in the past?” Unfortuanatly she already knows that answer to this, my ‘dating’ history isn’t exactly a private affair. “Exaclty. You’ve done it before and you’ll do it again.”

“I’ll do it again? You really believe that?” She doesn’t make a move at this, but that’s more than enough for me. “Well if you really believe that then what the hell are you doing dating me?”

“You know what; I’ve been asking myself the same question.” Her words shock me and my brain totally shuts down as she tosses the bags onto the floor and storms off. Watching her walk away there is only thing going through my head right now.

_Did we just break up?_

\-------------

“And she just walked away?” Even Sue seems shocked at what happened between us yesterday.

“I’m telling you she just freaked out? What the hell happened?” Sue and Reed both shake their heads, both evidentially as puzzled as I am. It’s Ben who finally answers me.

“Maybe she was jealous.” Clearly my face conveys my confusion as he explains a moment later. “Match stick those girls you used to date weren’t exactly average, they were pretty much all super models right?”

“Well yeah...I think. But like I told her I wouldn’t call it dating. Am I over reacting here?” Reed’s ‘no’ and Ben’s ‘yes’ pretty much sum up my thoughts on the subject.

“What are you talking about? Cindy was the one who was out of line, it’s not like he was secretly meeting her behind Frankie’s back. They bumped into each other on the street and she said hi. What was he supposed to do ignore her?” Reed argues my case. “Frankie’s the one who was in the wrong. She freaked out over nothing.”

“I wouldn’t call it nothing. I remember Cindy, she was a very attractive young girl and it wouldn’t be ridiculous for someone to get insecure around her.” Ben fires back his point at Reed, both continue to make their points for several minutes. Both of them, both of their points of view are exactly what’s been going on in my head all night.

On the one hand I know that Frankie completely over reacted to the whole thing. It wasn’t like I actively sought Cindy out, she came over to me. Sure we used to date but I had to be polite. I couldn’t just ignore her, besides that I told Cindy we were dating and I made it perfectly clear that I wanted nothing to do with her. On the other hand I can see why Frankie would be kind of jealous. Cindy is a lot of things but unattractive is not one of them.

“Johnny you’re not over reacting.” Somehow during my conversation with my brain Sue moved from her place on the couch and is now standing in front of me. “Frankie had no right to react the way that she did, and she had no right to accuse you of cheating on her. You said she’s been going on about your ex-girlfriends a lot lately?”

“Yeah. I mean I know she was kind of freaked out at first but we talked about it months ago and I thought she was past that. These last few weeks though...she’s been kind of obsessed with it all. I don’t get it.” Sue places a sympathetic hand on my shoulder, using the other hand to force my eyes to meet hers.

“Maybe there’s something else going on here. Sometimes when there’s something bothering us we bury our feelings but they don’t always stay buried. Sometimes we take those feelings out on someone close to us because we can.” I know what Sue’s saying makes sense but there’s a feeling in the pit of my chest, this feeling like there’s more going on here. “Go and talk to her. I’m sure she’s just upset about something and you’re the one she’s taking it out on.”

“Sue I don’t know...she was pretty upset when I tried calling her last night, she just slammed the phone down on me. Trust me she doesn’t want to see me.”

“She’s had a night to think on it and I’m sure she realises how out of line she was.” Sue seems so convinced, maybe she’s right.

“Yeah but what if...” I don’t need to finish the sentence for Sue to know what’s on my mind. She has a habit of doing this, she seems to know exactly what I’m thinking without me having to tell her.

“Until you go and speak to her you’ll never know.” She plants a kiss on my cheek before shoving me in the direction of the door. “Go.”

“You always have to be right, don’t you?” She smirks at me with a nod of her head as I walk out of the door.

\-----------------

“But Reed it’s been almost twelve hours.” Reed sighs heavily as I turn the lamp back on.

“Look Sue I know that you worry about Johnny but he’s a big boy. He can take care of himself, he’s probably just at Frankie’s apartment.” I know Reed’s most likely right but I can’t stop myself from worrying.

“If he is then why wouldn’t he call, he always calls.” Reed switches on his own bedside lamp before sitting up. “I’m sorry it’s just...I know how much he loves Frankie. If things end between them then I don’t know how he’ll cope.”

“You think he’ll go back to how he was before.” The thought had of course crossed my mind. Since meeting Frankie Johnny has changed so much, he doesn’t drink nearly as much as he used to, he’s more mature...he’s grown up.

“It’s been amazing to watch him become this person. Don’t get me wrong I love how playful and witty he is but since they’ve been together he’s become so sweet, so thoughtful and...I don’t want him to go back to being as reckless and immature as he was before.” As much as I love my brother even I have to admit that I don’t want him to change back. He’s the best version of himself right now and that’s something special. Reed says nothing but wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me close. He plants a kiss on the top of my head and holds me close. As I breathe in my husband’s scent I can feel myself drifting off to sleep. Just as I feel my eyes beginning to close an incessant banging jolts me awake.

“Who on earth...?” Reed mutters as he reluctantly gets out of bed and answers the door. “Oh for the love of...Sue!” Grabbing my robe I wander out into the hallway.

“What’s wr...oh Johnny.” I can’t help but sigh at the sight in front of me. Standing in front of me is my baby brother who is without a doubt utterly hammered. His attempts to walk prove futile as he stumbles forward and barely avoids hitting the floor before Reed manages to catch him.

“I’ll put him to bed.” Reed sighs heavily as he drags a near unconscious Johnny over towards his room. It’s only as Reed moves that I spot the reason Johnny got home.

“He was at the bar where I work. He was really drunk and I got kind of worried. Took a while but I managed to get him home in the end.” The red haired young woman addresses me as she fishes about in her pockets. She places Johnny’s keys and his phone in my hand. “I took his keys, didn’t want him driving in that state.”

“Thank you. Was he with anyone?” I hope to god she says no. There’s no doubt in my mind that Johnny would never dream of cheating on Frankie but alcohol does weird things to people.

“No, he pretty much spent the whole night propped up at the bar drinking shots. Look I should get going.” She leaves quickly, not stopping to hear the thank you I send her way.

“He’s in bed. Sleeping. He’s going to have one hell of a hangover when he wakes up tomorrow. To get into this state...god how much did he drink? His body temperature burns off alcohol...or at least I thought it did.” Reed stops as he ponders the question, his mind working a mile a minute. My own mind meanwhile ponders a different question.

_What happened tonight?_

\------------------

“Ugh...” I swipe a hand over my mouth as the vomiting finally stops. God what the hell did I drink last night?

“Here.” Someone – no idea who – practically shoves a glass of water into my hands and places what I’m assuming are aspirin into the other. Mercifully I manage not to throw up the water, but only just, and after several minutes I even manage to stand. Although admittedly the fact that I don’t face plant the floor probably has something to do with the pair of hands holding me up. I’m dragged through into the living room and pushed down onto the couch. Right now all I want is to crawl back into bed and stay there forever.

“You’re an idiot.” Sue’s voice is loud in my ears and I can’t help but wince. Why does everybody have to be so loud?

“What happened?” I finally manage to croak out the question, hating the way my voice sounds deafening to my ears.

“You tell me.” Sue waits several moments, perched on the sofa next to me, but eventually she’s forced to speak. “Johnny you went to talk to Frankie and then you just disappeared. I tried calling and calling but you refused to answer. Then you turn up here at two o’clock in the morning drunk. What happened?”

At the mention of that name my memory comes screaming back to me.

“Frankie...” Sue’s hand comes to rest on my shoulder, squeezing lightly, urging me to continue. “She...slept with someone.”

“What?” A second voice, Reed, queries. “What do you mean?”

Out of the corner of my eye I spy Reed sitting in the chair to my left. I turn my eyes back to my hands, attempting to stop the tears from falling. It takes more than a few breathes before the panic swelling in my chest lessons slightly.

“I went over there to talk to her...”

_Flashback:_

_I hesitate momentarily before knocking on the door. As much as I would rather run away and let this whole thing go I know I’ve got to deal with it._

_“Johnny, what...erm...what are you doing here?” Frankie seems shocked to see me not really surprising given her apparent low opinion of me. She probably thought I’d run away, honestly thought I would too._

_“Look I know what you think of me. I get that you think I’m some scum bag cheater who’s going to run away at the first sign of trouble but I’m not.” I’ve been thinking about what to say ever since I left the apartment but somehow the words just seem to be coming to me. “I don’t know what happened yesterday but I deserve an explanation. You’ve been acting increasingly freaked out and weird these last few weeks and I want to know why. Whatever it is...whatever’s going on I can help. We can deal with it and...I’m not cheating on you.”_

_“Johnny...” No I need her to understand._

_“No Frankie just listen.” She goes quiet for a moment and I take my chance. “Yes I’ve cheated on girlfriends in the past I’ll be the first one to admit to that but I wouldn’t do that to you. Back then I was a stupid kid but I’m not that person any more. I’ve changed so much since we got together, you’ve changed me...I’m a better person now because of you. You have to realise that I wouldn’t do that to you, I couldn’t. Please.”_

_“Johnny stop. I think you need to go.” She barely looks at me as she says this. This can’t be happening. “Please just leave.” She sounds so desperate for me to go._

_“No. I’m not letting this end. This can’t be it. Please just-” A voice from inside the apartment cuts me off and causes my heart to stop._

_“Hey honey who’s at the door?” Honey? In a second I push the door open, ignoring the protests from Frankie as I do. The voice belongs to a man who is standing half naked in my girlfriend’s apartment._

_“Who the hell are you?” My voice comes out far harsher than I had intended. “What’s going on Frankie?”_

_“I’m her boyfriend pal and I think you need to leave.” The words hit me like a tonne of bricks._

_“Johnny I am so sorry.” That look in her eye...I know in a second what happened._

_“How long?” Out of the corner of my eye I spot the mystery man taking a step forward. “Don’t even think about it pal! How long!?!”_

_“Two months.” With those words my heart shatters into a million pieces. I take no time in leaving the apartment, ignoring the shouts that fade into the back ground as I all but run._

_ End Flashback: _

“After that I took off, found a bar down the street and drank. A lot.” I can feel the tears already making their way from my eyes as I finish the tale.

“Oh Johnny.” As Sue pulls me into a hug I can’t hold it together. The tears come faster than I can control and before long I’m all but sobbing into my sisters embrace.

It takes longer than I’d care to admit for me to pull myself together. Sue never leaves my side once; Reed mysteriously disappears only to reappear shortly after my tears stop. Ben entered half way through my mini break down only to be dragged out by Reed shortly afterwards. Judging by the now murderous look on his face Reed has filled him on everything that I told him earlier.

“What am I supposed to do now?” Sue sighs and continues to hold my hand, her comfort ever present.

“I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out.” She places a kiss on my cheek. I scrub my hands over my eyes, wiping away the remaining tears before standing up.

“I deserve this you know that right?” I don’t need to look at her to know the horror filled expression that will be on her face. “I do, I deserve it.”

“Johnny on what planet could you possibly deserve this?” It’s Reed who speaks now, his voice laden with confusion.

“You know how many of my girlfriends I’ve cheated on? Do you? Because I don’t have a clue. Most of them probably. This is karma; karma is coming back around and slapping me as hard as it can in the face. I deserve this.” Before I can even breathe Sue races from her spot on the couch and slaps me hard on the chest.

“You stop that right now. You have been nothing but sweet and honest and loving to that, that...woman. You don’t deserve this because of a few crappy things you’ve done in the past.” She pulls me in to a viper like hug and squeezes me as hard as she can. “Now you’re going to go take a shower, you’re going to come and eat something and then you and me are going to go down to that woman and give her something to think about.”

“Sue, come on.” She merely glares at me at this point and after all these years I know better than to argue with her. “Yes mam.”

\-----------------

I’ve got to admit a shower was a good idea. My hearts still shattered and it doesn’t change last night but I don’t quite feel like death anymore. As I reach for the shirt I spot the picture on top of my dresser. The first is a picture of me and Sue back when we were kids, the second is of the four of us, taken the night Sue and Reed got together but its the third picture that draws my attention. The third picture was taken at Sue and Reeds wedding, Frankie’s got both arms wrapped around me whilst my own are holding her tightly. We’re not even looking at the camera. Sue snapped the picture when we weren’t looking, which she then of course put into a frame and snuck into my room. To her intense surprise I didn’t get rid of the picture and instead I put it on centre stage.

“Johnny?” A knock at the door thankfully interrupts my thoughts. Reed pokes his head round the door before speaking again. “You erm... you have a visitor. It’s Frankie.”

“Give me a minute.” He nods, smiles sympathetically and then leaves. It takes longer than I would like to admit before I steal my nerves and manage to stand from my position. I pull on a t-shirt and finally head out of the door.

“What exactly do you want?” My words thankfully come out strong, instead of weak and broken. “Well?”

“I-I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I never meant for this to happen.” Her eyes full with tears immediately as she attempts to make her excuses.

“Why? Why would you do this to me? What was I, was I not enough for you? Was that it?” I can feel the anger bubbling up inside of me.

“No, no it wasn’t you. I swear-” I can’t help but cut her off as my anger continues to build.

“Ah the old it’s not you it’s me cliché! Nice!”

“Johnny please. Peter...he’s an old friend.” The tears are falling from her eyes now but right now that doesn’t seem to matter.

“And what? You’ve always been in love with him but he never cared about you in that way. So you figured you settle with me, is that what we’ve been doing huh? Settling? You spend a year trying to make it work with me because you know he doesn’t want you but then he changes his mind and you leap into his arms and you both live happily ever after!” At a glance from Sue I force myself to reign in the anger taking control over me, much more and I might just burst into flames.

“Johnny please your putting words in my mouth.” How the hell can she stand there trying to look like butter wouldn’t melt?

“And you’re putting people in your bed.” The room goes silent for a minute before I find myself able to speak again. “Just tell me why.”

“I’m trying to!” Despite my anger I force myself to be quiet for a moment. I need to know. “Peter’s an old friend. His dad passed away a couple of months ago and we went to have dinner, you know just to cheer him up. We were back at my apartment after and he kissed me and then...one thing just led to another.”

“And then one thing led to another for the last two months?” Her face falls again at this. Why would she do this?

“I’m sorry.”

“You know that’s all I’ve heard from you. You’re sorry. If you really felt that bad then you would have stopped this the moment it started, if you really cared then things never would have gotten this far. Why didn’t you break up with me? Huh? If you want to be with this guy, this...this Peter then why continue on with me?” I think I’ve heard enough.

“I don’t know I just...things got so out of control and I just...Johnny please...I love you.” That’s it! That’s it!

“Not going to work. You can’t just say that you love me and expect it all to go away. It doesn’t work that way, it doesn’t just instantly make it better. I think you should go.” Her eyes snap wide open at this.

“Please Johnny don’t do this.”

“You know I don’t know what hurts more. On the one hand there’s the fact that you’ve spent the last two months sleeping with someone else and sneaking behind my back. But then on the other you tried to pin this on me. The other night with Cindy, you jumped on the chance to accuse me of sleeping with someone else and trying to end our relationship. You didn’t have the courage to tell me the truth and do things the right way.” She drops her gaze to the floor, at least she has the decency to look ashamed of herself. “I want you out of here right now. Me and you, we’re done. Go. Get out!”

She doesn’t argue this time. This time she walks silently out of the apartment and I sincerely hope that I never see her again as long as I live. Once again Sue wraps me up in her arms and hugs me as tightly as she can. I know in time this pain will heal. I know that eventually the ache and the pain in my heart will lessen but right now, as my sister comforts me, my world feels broken.


End file.
